Strengthening Qualitative Research Through Methodological Innovation and Integration: Community Resources and Disaster Resilience

几十年来，佛罗里达的移动的家庭公园为居民提供了负担得起的住房选择和可行的社区。 然而，佛罗里达的移动的家庭公园正成为越来越不稳定的居住地。 这是由于该州的发展热潮和最近飓风袭击的增加，预计这两种趋势在不久的将来将继续下去。 尽管是一个特别庞大和脆弱的群体，移动的家庭公园的居民在过去很少受到学术界的关注。 因此，这项研究的一个总体目标是更多地了解过去研究不足的人群。 目前，我们对移动的家庭公园居民的社区以及他们繁荣或失败的条件知之甚少。 人们对居民防备和科普自然灾害和其他威胁的能力所知更少。 环境、社会和文化因素在创造“社区资源”和“灾害复原力”的复杂模式中相互交织，这将在本研究中进行密切调查。 该研究的地理重点是中西部佛罗里达，特别是墨西哥湾沿岸的两个县，这两个县拥有大量的移动的家庭公园和居民。 这项研究更大的学术目的是帮助我们理解社区在灾害中发挥的复杂作用。 为此目的，本研究追求四个具体目标。 第一个目标是通过定性和定量指标相结合，评估四个精心挑选的研究地点（移动的家庭公园和周边地区）的“社区资源”。 第二是解释社区概况中现有的差异。 第三个目标是评估每个研究地点居民的“抗灾能力”。 第四，也是最重要的一点，本研究将创新性地结合社会学、人类学、公共政策分析、城市规划、地理学等领域常用的定性和定量研究方法，通过建立和验证一系列假设，探讨社区资源对居民抗灾能力的影响。 程序包括描述性统计，地理信息系统（GIS），社区评估，人种学观察，以及大约100次深入访谈。 这项研究将由一个跨学科的研究小组进行，其中包括两名博士生，在南佛罗里达大学，坦帕，在18个月的时间内。这项研究的更广泛影响之一在于其政策潜力，特别是在自然灾害之前、期间和之后改善对脆弱社区的保护。 研究结果将提供给当地社区和政府机构，以帮助改善灾害规划和恢复。 此外，该研究通过促进对学生的教学和指导来改善教育。

SES- 0719158Margarethe KusenbachBeverly WardUniversity of South FloridaFor many decades, mobile home parks in Florida have provided affordable housing choices and viable communities to their residents. Yet Florida mobile home parks are becoming increasingly unstable places to live. This is due to the state's development boom and the recent increase in hurricane strikes, with both trends predicted to continue in the near future. Despite being a particularly sizable and vulnerable group of people, mobile home park residents have received little scholarly attention in the past. Thus, one general goal of the study is to learn more about a population that has been understudied in the past. Currently, we know little about the communities of mobile home park residents, and the conditions under which they thrive or fail. Even less is known about the residents' ability to prepare for, and cope with, natural hazards and other threats. Environmental, social, and cultural factors intersect in creating complex patterns of "community resources" and "disaster resilience" which will be closely investigated in this study. The geographic focus of the study is west-central Florida, particularly two counties on the Gulf Coast that are home to a very high number of mobile home parks and residents. The larger scholarly aim of the study is to contribute to our understanding of the complex role communities play during disasters. To this purpose, the study pursues four specific goals. The first goal is to assess the "community resources" of four carefully selected research sites (mobile home parks and surrounding areas) through a combination of qualitative and quantitative indicators. The second is to explain the existing variations in community profiles. The third goal is to assess the "disaster resilience" of residents at each research site. Fourth, and most importantly, the study will discuss the impact of community resources on the disaster resilience of residents via developing and testing a range of hypotheses.The study combines qualitative and quantitative research methods commonly used in sociology, anthropology, public policy analysis, urban planning, and geography in an innovative manner. Procedures include descriptive statistics, geographic information systems (GIS), community assessment, ethnographic observation, and approximately one hundred in-depth interviews. Research will be conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers, including two doctoral students, at the University of South Florida, Tampa, over a time period of eighteen months. One of the broader impacts of the study lies in its potential for policy, specifically for improving the protection of vulnerable communities before, during, and following natural disasters. Research findings will be made available to the local community and to government agencies to help improve disaster planning and recovery. Additionally, the research improves education by facilitating the teaching and mentoring of students.